England ended their home summer unbeaten with a comfortable 20-run win over a struggling New Zealand at Lord’s.
Set 156 to win, the White Ferns’ batting woes – which have plagued them throughout the series – continued as they could only manage 135-8.
Lauren Bell led England’s attack with 3-20, while fellow seamer Freya Kemp and spinner Charlie Dean took two wickets apiece in a fine all-round display.
The win secures a 5-0 clean sweep for England, and was preceded by a dominant 3-0 one-day international series win.
Earlier, the visitors put in their best performance in the field, reducing England to 61-4, but could not capitalise as captain Heather Knight’s unbeaten 46 took the game away.
Fran Jonas shone with 4-22, including the wicket of Danni Wyatt from the first ball of the innings and a stunning caught and bowled to remove Nat Sciver-Brunt for 16, while fellow spinner Eden Carson took 2-35.
But the regular wickets were interspersed with inconsistency, particularly from the few overs of pace, which relieved all pressure on England and still allowed them to set New Zealand what would have been their highest score of the T20 series.
It was an ambitious target for a batting line-up so low on confidence, with Amelia Kerr’s 43 the highest score followed by the familiar trend of a middle-order stumble as five wickets fell for just 27 runs.
It is the first time that England have won 13 matches in a home summer, their previous record being 12, as they thoroughly outplayed both Pakistan and New Zealand in both white-ball formats.
After The Hundred, which starts on 23 July, Knight’s side travel to Ireland for three one-day internationals and three T20s in September for their final outing before the World Cup, which takes place in Bangladesh in the autumn.
More to follow.
Source Agencies
